January 17, 2010

My mom and I attended the "Road to California Quilters' Conference and Showcase" in Ontario, California this weekend. It was the 15 year anniversary of this quilt show but it was our first time to make the trip. We had a great time admiring many amazing quilts and also did some shopping. Quilting and shopping are things that go hand in hand. :) I was expecting the show to be bigger than the Long Beach Quilt Show but found that it was about the same size, if not a little bit smaller. But the big names in quilting such as Alex Anderson were on hand to teach classes and talk to the public so that was a treat.

A trend that was really prevalent at this show was the use of Swarovski crystals in quilt embellishment. My mom and I are very attracted to anything "sparkly", as are most women I think, and this is a trend that we love! So we decided that we might need to try this technique and started our search for a vendor that was selling them. It didn't take long to find the booth with swarms of women jockeying for a position in line to get their hands on some of those crystals. :) And you too can take part in this newest trend if you visit her website at http://www.cheriscrystals.com/ I am very excited to try it!

There were so many beautiful quilts at the show including all the "Best in Show" quilts from the last 14 years. I am always amazed by the talent that is exhibited at these shows so I wanted to share a few of my favorites.

"Pup Art" by Nancy S. Brown

"The Quilt Show'" by Laura Peterson

"My Wyoming Valley" by Sherry Reynolds

"Memories of Emerald Reflections" by Sharon Shamber

We enjoyed "The Quilt Show" by Laura Peterson so much! She made a quilt about what it looks like to go to a quilt show and the details are incredible. Each quilt hanging on the wall is a real mini quilt that she constructed. And if you look really closely at the viewfinders of the people's cameras you can see a tiny version of the quilt they are taking a picture of. Amazing! The following is a video of that quilt. Please pardon my speedy panning. You would think that since I work in television, I would be good at videotaping something but apparently I need some practice with my flip video camera. ;)

January 7, 2010

I have a couple fun updates to share today. First of all, I wanted to report that I received a new sewing machine for Christmas! I got the Brother LB6770 which does embroidery and has 67 fun stitches. The other sewing machine that I have is a Viking Emerald 118 which is my workhorse. It was my first machine and I don't think I will ever have the heart to get rid of it. It sews beautifully and is so reliable! The reason I wanted the Brother machine was that I wanted more stitch options and also wanted to incorporate embroidery into my quilts and offer free embroidery in my artfire store. I haven't tried the Brother machine or even turned it on yet but I am very excited to open the thick manual and learn all about what it can do. My family ordered it from Costco and it came with a bunch of fun thread colors to get started with. My second update is that the "Road To California Quilters Conference and Showcase" in Ontario, CA is coming up soon! It takes place at the Ontario Convention Center January 14th-17th. One day admission is $10 and multi-day tickets at $20. There will be hundreds of quilts and vendors there and it's touted to be the "Best In the West". I've never attended but my mom and I are so excited to be able to go this year. If you live anywhere near Southern California and love to quilt, don't miss this event!

January 5, 2010

If you love to read quilting blogs like I do, you've probably heard of Amanda Jean from crazymomquilts. I just found out that she is ending her blog and moving on to new adventures. Take a moment and head over to her blog to show your appreciation for all she has done for the quilting community. Click here and you can read her last post and leave a comment. I'm so sad to see her go!